Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-04-30
PICK DAVIS MAGNETIC TABLE.
\ Piece Of Furniture on Which the
owner Won Thousands Throwing

\ Piece Of Furniture on Which the
owner Won Thousands Throwing
pice.
For ten years past there has stood in
the corner Of the billiard room of the
principal hotel in this town a rickety
old card-table. writes Hanford, CAL.
>pondcnt Of The Net0 York SHn.
It, wOrthles>ueSs caused 1t 10 remain in
the place during the changes OF the
hotel many proprictorships. II was
u round table covered with an old gray
army blanket. tackled TO the edge
through long strip Of leather. Al
regular distances were four pieces Of
TN clum>iiy nailed down fof the play
ers 20 lay tEeir lighted cigars On. In
late years lis four rudel, made legs
were 30 shaky that no one cared To teet-
cr his chips on the table, and il was
chiefly used by the guests to throw
their coats and hats on when they went
To their meals. For u long time the
present proprietor always said when he
looked al the table that he ''iutcndei
10 Gear ii out Tomorrow and get II new
one but somehow this was no. done
untIl lately; perhaps then only because
people began to tear their coats on the
nails, and their impromp;u remarks ON
the subject tended To complicate mat
terS.
II was after double barreled ex-
plo,i0n of this kind the Orher day that
the proprietor told his bartender TO cut
the cover OFF the table and make kind
ling-Moud OF the cuSsed thing. The
bartender whipped out his knife and
began 10 carve the blanket. He had
Just made one savage slash and had
started p second when his knife struck
something metallic. He then ripped
the cover of and found steel plate
nine inches long and six inches wide,
which was set flush into the
table. The plate was about
foot from the edge and pierced with
II dozen holes. Every one wondered
what it was for, and an old townsman
remembered that the table was
brought there from Virginia Cityyears
ago and presumed it was used in the
early days to play some kind of crib
bage. When the table began to be-
chopped up 4 ght was thrown on the
character of the table; for underneath
the top, concealed on a little shelf by
one Of the legs, were small battery,
coils of wire, and some complicated
machinery connected with one of the
tinplates. These were covered with
rust and dust.
The old townSman woke up and re-
membering seeing in days gone by
man named Pick Davis win $1,000 at
dice on that very table. from cattle
man. in about fifteen seconds, besides
picking up sundry thousands and hun
dreds at other times from those who
were gamblingly inclined. Two drinks
also caused the old townsman TO sud-
denly recoliect that Davis came down
to MuSSel SlOugh--as Hanford was call
ed then-from Virginia City with
big reputation as dip chucker," and
the boys came in from far and near to
buck him. 1t was said that Davis had
won over 100000 at dice in the mines,
where he was called lucky Pick" As
he was not found out in his play he is
alive to-day, but he has changed his
name and ownes big ranch in the San |
joaquin valley. So II is seen that one
way to wealth and respectability has
been for ''surc thing man" in the
discovery of a magetic outfit to do up
people with dice, and not to get caught
because he got in his work single
handed